1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a military target for training on high explosive (HE) bombing ranges. The present invention is an alternative to using military surplus vehicles as targets on HE bombing ranges.
2. Description of Related Art
The targets currently in wide spread use at DoD HE bombing ranges are known as hard targets. Hard targets are traditionally surplus military equipment, such as old tanks and armored personnel carriers (APC). The surplus military equipment is typically delivered to the range from the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO), generally at little to no cost to the bombing range. While the hard target arrives at no cost to the bombing range, the range still incurs a significant expense to properly prepare the hard target, demilitarize the hard target, transport the hard target to the impact area, maintain hard target fidelity after transport, transport a used hard target off the bombing range, and finally to permanently dispose of the used hard target.
A partial solution to using surplus military equipment is the GreenTarget®. However, the GreenTarget® suffers from a myriad of problems some of which are: it is not meant for use on HE bombing ranges where it would have low survivability, it has high acquisition cost; and it is only available from a sole source supplier. Each GreenTarget® is manufactured from steel plates sized and fabricated for each application. Depending on the target application, steel plate thickness varies from ⅝ inch to 1 inch, allowing the target to only be suitable for ranges that do not train with HE bombs.
Another partial solution to the problem of using surplus military equipment is the Joint Modular Ground Target (JMGT). The main problem with a JMGT is that it is incompatible for use as an HE hard target. Additionally, it has low strength, is not durable, and has a high acquisition cost. The JMGT is a building block style target that can withstand multiple low intensity hits. While visually correct and relatively low cost, JMGTs are not useful as hard targets due to the low rate of survivability.
Actual surplus military vehicles are highly desirable for use as hard targets because of their durability and their threat representation qualities. However, these surplus military vehicles when used as targets present environmental and operational challenges because of their environmental impacts, high life-cycle costs, occupational and explosive safety concerns, and more importantly their limited availability. Traditional hard targets, such as a surplus M-60 tank or APC, present environmental liabilities for range managers. The M-60 tank and APC slated for use as hard targets must be carefully prepared to meet environmental requirements. The hard target preparation includes the removal of significant quantities of hazardous, radiological, and special waste materials including: petroleum oils, and liquids, fuel, coolant, lubricants, low-level radioactive waste, asbestos containing items, solid-state electronic components, fire suppression equipment, engines, and drive train components.
In addition to the environmental waste products generated from the target preparation, actual use of the traditional hard target on-range also presents a significant environmental liability to the range manager. During hard target preparation it is understood that not all of the hazardous waste materials are recovered. Inevitably, residual hazardous waste material will remain trapped within the components of an M-60 tank or APC due to the difficulties in extracting all of the fluids from all reservoirs within the vehicle and there will be releases of hazardous material to the environment.
The alternative steel and concrete target overcomes the environmental and operational limitations present when using military surplus vehicles as a hard target by resolving the problems related to procurement, preparation, and the assumption of environmental liability. The alternative steel and concrete target eases the procurement problem by being easily built and assembled at a reasonable cost obviating the need to procure surplus military vehicles. The time to assemble the alternative steel and concrete target on the range is short. The environmental liability is eliminated by the selection of non-hazardous materials used to construct the alternative steel and concrete target. The alternative steel and concrete target is environmentally friendly and is expected to have life-cycle costs that approximate those commonly encountered when using an M-60 tank.